China Glaze Electropop Collection Spring 2012 Swatches and Review

China Glaze's happy, colorful spring collection is here, and not a minute too soon! The theme is Electropop, and it's an assortment of cute and candy-like pastels and brights.


China Glaze Aquadelic. This is a bright but pale turquoise creme. It's more green and saturated than China Glaze For Audrey, closer instead to something like MAC Peppermint Patti. It's super pretty and just a little brighter on the nail than you'd expect... Might be my new favorite turquoise, especially because it doesn't make my hands look red.



China Glaze Dance Baby. Pale bubblegum pink creme. Super sweet and cute looking. Very girly.



China Glaze Electric Beat. A faded, soft light blue creme. It's a shade somewhere in between cornflower and periwinkle. It's extremely soft and muted looking and that's what makes this one special and different. Very serene and misty-looking.



China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic. This is one of those berry-based shades that always photographs too red-looking. It's actually more purple-toned in real life. Very fuchsia. Bright. The bottle picture from China Glaze shows the color more accurately, just a little darker:

Fuchsia Fanatic

China Glaze Gaga For Green. A light yellow-toned green creme. This one has a softness to it as well. I expected it to be more crisp or dark, but it surprised me by being bright and soft at the same time. Yellow-toned greens are my favorite.



China Glaze Kinetic Candy. A pale baby blue creme with a hint of grey. This is a very light blue but it doesn't look 100% blue. It definitely has a bit of grey in it. It looks like clouds. Beautiful.



China Glaze Gothic Lolita. Super purple! I love this so much. It's a light, borderline medium, red-toned purple with some super fine red and blue shimmer to it. It's more of a hidden shimmer that comes out only in the right lighting than a true sparkly-shimmer. The shimmer adds depth to the color. If I had to choose just one favorite from this collection, Gothic Lolita would be it. I like the name, too, since Gothic Lolita is one of my favorite styles.

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China Glaze Make Some Noise. Bright orange-coral creme. This one has a semi-jelly finish (just a little bit sheer and squishy looking) compared to all the other shades which are dense, opaque cremes. Bright and saturated but still has a little softness to it.



China Glaze Sunshine Pop. Bright yellow shimmer. Not neon bright and not extremely shimmery. The yellow is a little muted and the shimmer is silvery-white and very subtle. Reminds me a little bit of China Glaze Solar Power, just a little brighter and less rich.



China Glaze Sweet Hook. Ugh. This is too pretty. I'm a sucker for these types of purples in the springtime. This is a very creamy pale purple. It has a lot of pink tone to it to keep it from being like most other pastel lavender cremes. It's a little warmer and easier to wear because of that as well.


China Glaze Techno. This is a re-promote. It's a clear base with tiny silver-based holographic glitter and larger hexagon silver holographic glitter. It's very sheer (three coats here) so it's perfect for layering as a glitter topcoat.



China Glaze Wicked Style. Another one that wants to turn orange-red when it's really pink. It's not quite as orange-looking in real life. It's still call it a coral, but not an orange toned coral. More like light raspberry coral, if such a color exists. China Glaze calls it "party tropical punch," and I'd say that's a pretty good description. The bottle picture from China Glaze is color accurate:

Wicked Style.

Since Techno is so nice for layering, I thought I'd try it out over a few of these colors. The light and pastel shades look especially nice with a little sprinkle of hologram glitter over them:

Techno (one coat) over Aquadelic.


Techno (one coat) over Dance Baby.


Techno (one coat) over Gothic Lolita.


Techno (one coat) over Sunshine Pop.


Techno (one coat) over Wicked Style.

The formula on these was great, for the most part. The only colors that weren't consistent with the rest were Sunshine Pop, which was thick and streaky, and Gaga For Green, which was thin and runny. Otherwise the formula was really nice. Not too thick, not too thin, very smooth and even. These are all really dense and opaque, nearly perfect in one coat. I did two coats of all except Techno and Sunshine Pop (three), and they didn't need more than that. They dry quickly and to a glossy finish. Techno dries dull without topcoat. Brushes were even and defect-free. Good application on these.

On one hand, I feel like I've seen most of these colors before. It seems like a cross between the Up & Away, Ecollection and Custom Kicks collections. But on the other hand, I love every color and I'm really quite satisfied with the collection as a whole. I guess I can't complain because I do actually like all the colors and I can't think of anything I'd change about it. I think they look really soft and creamy on my nails, and the little splashes of bright-yet-soft color are perfect for spring. This collection feels happy and lighthearted, which was one of the things I liked so much about the Up and Away collection from 2010.

Overall, I dig it. A lot. Especially Gothic Lolita, Sweet Hook, Aquadelic, Electric Beat and Kinetic Candy. Always nice to have cheerful colors this time of year. The easy, streak-free application and smooth formula on these seals the deal for me. Great collection.

This collection will be available starting in February.

(This was sent for review.)